The weather is warming up and so are the plants on my rooftop. The snow peas are finally starting to show some spirit and I wandered out to pick up a couple of tomato cages last weekend to give them something to latch onto as they grow. They weren’t quite starting to fall over yet, but snow peas are a bit vine-like, and I knew that they would do better with some sort of trellis system.
What I didn’t realize until I checked in on them a few days later (it was rainy for a few days after I stuck the cages in the soil so I didn’t need to go outside to water the little guys) was just how clingy they were. In no time at all, the snow peas had extended little tendrils and started wrapping them around the wires of the cage!
The green onions, spinach, and bok choy are also making some serious progress. The spinach is starting to look like real spinach — although I clearly planted some seeds too close together. Fortunately the spinach seems to be happy enough to be transplanted, so I dug up a few plants this weekend and dropped them into the snow pea planters.
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how big the spinach will get, and odds are the plants are still too close together, but I can always cull some later if necessary. I’d rather have too much spinach than too little.
I had started some green onions and bok choy indoors in March, but they didn’t come out that well. Either I should have moved them outdoors sooner, or the windowsill conditions just weren’t good enough. Whatever the cause, I eventually gave up and direct sowed some of each outside. The onions are coming up like nobody’s business.
The bok choy is still off to a slow start, but I’m holding out hope that I’ll get at least a couple of good plants this season.
My biggest concern is that since almost everything that’s doing well had to be direct sown outside, I may have some problems when I try to move the red peppers I’m starting indoors to the rooftop. Peppers like hot weather, so they won’t go out until May or June, and they take a while to get started, so it’s usually a good idea to start them indoors. But I’m not sure how hardy they’ll be.
I’m also not entirely certain the snow peas will start giving me… well, snow peas before late May. My original plan had been to pull out the snow peas and put in peppers and green bush beans in May/June, but I hope I’ll be able to actually harvest some veggies before that happens.
Brad, I saw a link to you from another site, and have a question, if you'd be so kind as to answer it: how can I exclusively use an xlr mike to record, and not use the x/y mikes on the H4n? what I'm trying to do is eliminate ambient sound, and only record from the xlr inputs. Thanks.
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Hey Tony,
I reviewed that recorder a few years ago and don't have it with me anymore. But my guess is that there's an input switch or setting that lets you choose between using the internal and external mics. If you're getting sound from the built-in mics, I'd be surprised if you're actually recording *anything* using the mic plugged into the XLR input.